Final Fantasy VII: Genetic Legacy
by Maiyrhia
Summary: A Vincent-oriented fic which follows the unexpected consiquences of a suddent attempt on Yuffie's life. - Yuffie/Vincent. Warning: Contains Cid so expect some foul language! Affected chapters contain separate warnings.
1. Chapter 1

_Ok, so. Spoilers for all things Final Fantasy VII, including all related games and the film. Don't want, don't watch._

_This fic is set sometime after Dirge of Cerberus._

_It contains the Yuffie/Vincent pairing, but does NOT, unlike most such fics, completely change Vincent's character the moment he falls in love._

_Canon? What's that? Ignoring canon is our specialty, so I'll beat you to the complaints._

_1. Yuffie should know about Chaos and Vincent's immortality - yeah, we know, but she somehow missed that, ok? She does -not- know._

_2. Chaos returned to the lifestream? Not in this fic he didn't._

_3. Character development - we may have taken a few liberties with what happened to the characters after their last actual involvement in the series. Get over it._

_Please, please comment - we love comments, and this is our first Final Fantasy fic!_

_Last but not least, this fanfic is written by both myself and my boyfriend Ryan. I'll forward relevant comments to him and you'll get replies the same way. Don't bother commenting on the two very different writing styles - we know!_

_Chapter 1: May Wood_

The sun was unusually bright in the sky as Vincent Valentine walked past the power plant, squinting into the light. He looked up and regretted it as he saw a figure waving from a catwalk above his head, backlit by a sky too bright for her to be recognised. It was when she began to jump, still waving, that he recognised the exuberance that could only belong to Yuffie Kisaragi, ninja warrior and self-proclaimed white rose of Wutai. Vincent suppressed a groan.

The plant he was passing by was an experimental one, trying to create energy from materia to replace the now lost energy that had come from the Shinra Electric Power Company. Seeing as it involved large quantities of materia, the former thief had naturally applied for a job there as guard, and for some reason she had been accepted.

"Vince!" he heard Yuffie shout, as she foolishly climbed onto the railing, practically begging to fall off and hit her head - again. "Hello! Vince! It's me!" She continued to jump and wave, until, predictably enough, she tumbled from the railing, colliding with the walkway only to slide off it, bouncing off a support strut before landing on the floor in a heap, head-first.

Sighing in something close to despair, Vincent waited for the inevitable flood of whining and the scolding that would undoubtedly follow when he failed to show enough sympathy for her liking. He was vaguely wondering how she could fall like that and not be seriously hurt, when it suddenly occurred to him that she was perfectly silent, except for a faint whimper of pain. He hurried over, crouching beside Yuffie and gently rolling her over to see blood staining her torso, bright red as she lost consciousness.

Movement caught his eye, and at the sight of a fleeing figure in the distance, he began to run. He took a moment to compose himself as he felt Chaos rising within him before settling on a cold determination to exact revenge. Raising his gun, he fired several shots into the back of the fleeing figure, unable to deny himself a moment's happiness as the man slumped to the ground, apparently dead.

A quick check of the corpse revealed it to be not a corpse as the blood-soaked man raised a gun at him. A moment later and the man was dead, for real this time. Vincent turned to run back to Yuffie, hearing Tifa's voice in the distance as he neared his fallen comrade.

"Vincent, what happened?"

Vincent almost failed to reply, but at Tifa's worried look he eventually told her, "Someone shot Yuffie," without slowing down his pace until he reached the now-dead assassin's victim. Still alive - barely - she had faithfully tried to call the plant's security on her radio but only succeeded in coughing blood all over it.

"Oh my god…" Tifa gasped as she saw Yuffie on the ground, shock muting her voice slightly. "Vincent, we need to get her to a hospital or something." She crouched beside the injured girl. None of them had ever been hurt this badly, not even through all their battles… "Do you have a potion or something on you?"

Shaking his head as Tifa picked up Yuffie's radio and reported what had happened, he waited until the radio crackled back an order to take the injured girl to the on-site medical area before picking her up without hesitation, walking quickly towards the hospital. Yuffie's head tilted as she was moved until she was looking at him, but a quick look at the blank look in her eyes told him she was barely aware of anything, if at all.

Tifa arrived in time to see the doctors working frantically to save her injured friend and, shaking slightly, she caught the arm of one who did not look too busy and demanded, "Is she going to be okay?"

"If we can stabilise her," came the reply from the doctor, as behind him others were pouring a potion down Yuffie's throat in an attempt to heal her a little. He pulled his arm from Tifa's soft grip and hurried back to his patient.

Turning on Vincent, Tifa took a slight breath and asked a question she already knew the answer to. "What about the person who did this to her?"

Vincent's face was a picture of calm as he shrugged slightly. "Dead," he replied flatly, confirming Tifa's suspicions.

Tifa nodded slightly; although she would not have killed the man, she could not deny a certain sense of relief in knowing that Vincent had dealt with him. Yuffie was safe… providing she could stop whoever had sent him, that is. "But why?" she mused aloud, not expecting or receiving a reply from the silent man. Clearing her throat, she changed the subject, trying to inject a note of humour into the gloomy situation. "Whose stupid idea was it to have Yuffie _guard_ materia in the first place?"

Vincent shrugged slightly. He had always maintained that putting Yuffie anywhere near materia was a bad idea at the best of times. "She knows how to keep hold of it," he answered eventually.

She sighed and leaned against the wall. Was Yuffie doing any better? Did Vincent care? Her heart told her that he must care, but his blank face, devoid of all emotion… no, no, he must care. Even he could not be as heartless as he seemed. "Hey, why are you here exactly?" she asked eventually, mostly to distract herself from a growing desire to scold him for his calm.

There was a very long pause until finally, when Tifa had begun to think Vincent was ignoring that question as he ignored so many others, he replied, "They're interested in protomateria." He redundantly gestured at his chest, indicating the protomateria buried within, stolen by Rosso but returned by Shelke in time for him to save the world.

"Oh," Tifa replied after a pause of her own, slightly surprised that Vincent would subject himself to the scans and tests the plant would undoubtedly want to perform on him. After another awkward pause, she decided to tell him what she was doing there. He would not ask, but maybe he was curious. "I had a package to deliver here. I heard your gun, it's a bit… distinctive."

Vincent nodded again. "The man who shot Yuffie used a silencer," he told her thoughtfully. It was the only possible reason he had not heard the shot.

She nodded in reply. "He probably wanted be out of the building before anyone noticed something was wrong. It's a good thing you were here."

Before Vincent could reply, not that she was expecting him to, the crowd of doctors around Yuffie's bed thinned significantly, implying they had stabilised her. One of the doctors made his way to the two standing by the door and spoke in a quiet voice. "There's an exit wound. Bullet went clean through her. Nixed a lung on the way past." He waited for a reaction, but received only a nod from the woman, and was completely ignored by the man. "She'll wake up in a couple of hours. Don't let her move too much." He turned and walked out, unable to stand the burning glare of those crimson eyes for another second.

"That's gonna be fun…" Tifa mused to herself as the rest of the doctors left, leaving behind scanners to call them if her friend's condition worsened. She glanced at Vincent as he made a slight noise. Was that amusement, or was it her over-active imagination?

She sighed. "I'm going to go look at the person who did it," she offered after a pause. "See if I can figure out why, and if she's still in danger. You'll be ok with her?"

Vincent nodded, quietly telling her where he'd left the body, watching her as she left the room quickly.

A quarter of an hour passed, agonisingly slowly, as Vincent watched Yuffie in the bed. He was just settling down for a few hours of boredom when he saw her eyelids flicker. A quick glance at the clock confirmed the time. Why was she waking up already?

"Vince…?" Yuffie moaned, sounding pathetic enough to gain even his cold sympathy.

"Try not to move," he told her, pity sounding in his tone despite his best intentions. He rarely pitied the young ninja, but she really was hurt this time, and so clearly frightened.

"Mmm-kay," she murmured. "Sounds easy for once."

After a pause to see if she would keep talking, Vincent settled down in the chair, wondering how much longer Tifa would take. "They said you'd be out for hours," he told Yuffie, mostly because a conversation was more interesting than silence.

"Wasn't I?" Yuffie looked confused; she clearly felt as though she had been.

Vincent shrugged. "Fifteen minutes," he told her after a pause, his mind racing. She had woken up so soon, and after such a dangerous injury… add that to the fact that she could easily fall from a great height and land on her head, only to be completely unharmed. But why? What was special about her?

Yuffie smiled weakly. "Takes more than bullets to stop the white rose of Wutai," she bragged, but her heart clearly wasn't in it as she winced in pain too great for the drugs she had been given.

It was clear what was on her mind; she was worried about the assassin sent to kill her. "I stopped the person who shot you," Vincent told her quietly, his tone leaving no question as to how he had stopped the man, nor as to the fatality of the encounter. He could not deny that he cared for Yuffie, and had been worried for her safety – indeed, he remembered the urge to turn, to chase the man as Chaos. As for Yuffie, maybe, long ago in a different life, he would have pursued her interests, but…

"Thanks…" Yuffie replied softly. "You saved me."

Vincent ignored her thanks, still trying to figure out how she could possibly be alive, all the injuries, all the bumps on the head, and not a scrape until now… His musings were interrupted by a gasp of pain as she tried to move, stretching her chest wound. "Stop moving," he scolded, but none of the worry he was feeling entered his voice, as cold as ever.

Yuffie's face slipped into a worried frown as she saw her chest. "I have a hole in me…" she muttered, in shock.

Of course, he thought. She had been shot in the back – and was hardly expecting to see a hole in her chest. "The bullet went through you," he told her softly. "Hit a lung." He tried not to sound too concerned for her welfare.

He was about to continue when the door opened and Tifa slipped in, holding a gun by her side – the same gun used by the man who had shot Yuffie. "I couldn't find anything, the guy didn't even have a wallet," Tifa told them helplessly, shrugged, and held up the gun before either of them could speak. "I did take this though."

Yuffie frowned at the would-be murder weapon being in the same room as its intended target. "I don't like it…" she complained, her voice high as she whined.

Ignoring her completely, Vincent looked at the gun Tifa was holding. "Shinra," he announced after just a second. Although there were no visible markings on it, it unmistakeably belonged to Shinra – or what was left of them – but why would they want Yuffie dead?

Almost instinctively, Tifa tossed the gun away from her so it skidded into a corner. "No thank you," she retorted. "I'll get my own gun."

"Which one of you brought me here?" Yuffie demanded, her tone sounding urgent as she stared at Vincent.

She had already guessed, he knew, but wanted confirmation. They both knew that Tifa could not have lifted her, let alone carried her to the hospital. "I did," he replied after a long and expectant pause.

Yuffie flashed him with a weak but dazzling smile. "Thank you…" she whispered, then, after a long pause filled with a total lack of acknowledgement, she turned her attention to Tifa, sounding slightly disappointed. "Thank you too, Tifa. I'm sure you helped."

Tifa frowned at her as if only now noticing she was awake. "You shouldn't be awake yet, Yuffie," she told her, sounding motherly in her concern, but not without confusion that mirrored Vincent's.

"That's what Vince said," Yuffie replied quietly, then smiled at them. "You shouldn't have underestimated the great ninja Yuffie!"

"Awake already…" Tifa and Vincent turned to see a doctor standing in the doorway, looking at the patient who, contrary to all logic, was wide awake after just a quarter of an hour. "I wondered if that might be the case."

Vincent frowned. The doctor clearly knew a lot more than he was letting on. "Why?" he asked quietly, when it became clear nobody else would. What was going on?

"Well…" The doctor glanced at Yuffie, whose face turned instantly anxious. "If I could talk to you outside?" He left the room, and waited until the door shut behind the other man before continuing. "We tested some of the blood from the wound. There was... rather a lot of it. We thought she might need a transfusion, and we wanted to see what blood type she was. But the results were... strange. There was something wrong about it, that we couldn't identify at first."

The man had said rather a lot, but at the same time managed to say absolutely nothing of any worth. Vincent sighed, the only outward sign of the impatience and anger he was feeling at the doctor. "What is it?" he asked, his voice deliberate and calm – a calm he simply could not feel.

The doctor took a deep breath before continuing. "Well... there's a lot of Mako in there. Along with some cells that we're not exactly sure how to classify. We're calling them Y Cells."

Finally, he had said something worthwhile, and very significant. "Mako?" he echoed, showing his surprise. How could Yuffie, of all people, have Mako in her blood? Only SOLDIERs had been infused with that, and the Wutai princess would have had nothing to do with Shinra or SOLDIER.

Nodding, the doctor said, "And the Y Cells seem to have properties similar, if not identical, to S Cells. Perhaps G Cells. We're not entirely sure if there's a difference yet, the notes are... hazy." He looked relieved that Vincent understood what he was saying; clearly he had expected to be forced to explain what the findings meant.

Vincent nodded thoughtfully. This still made no sense… he would have to call Cloud and tell him what the doctor had found, maybe he could make sense of it. Mako was one thing, but how could Yuffie have cells reminiscent of Sephiroth's? That made even less sense than her being infused with mako… He vaguely became aware that the doctor was waiting for him to say something and gave an irritated nod. At least most people he saw on at least an occasional basis knew not to wait for a reply from him.

Finally, the doctor stopped waiting for Vincent to speak and continued himself. "We thought she should get the news from someone she knows. Try to remind her, it doesn't mean anything. The only reason Sephiroth went so nuts is because he couldn't handle it. Not because the project damaged his mind." He looked at Vincent again, waiting for an answer.

Yuffie's voice cut through their conversation, high-pitched with worry. "_WHAT IS GOING ON OUT THERE_?"

Completely ignoring her outburst, Vincent said calmly, "I need to call someone."

To his slight irritation, the doctor did not take this as his cue to leave, but spoke instead. "All right. We're still looking into how this could have happened. We'll let you know when we find out." After a few tense seconds of silence, he turned and finally left.

Taking a moment to calm down, Vincent took out his mobile, glanced at and decided to ignore a large sign warning against its use, and called Cloud.

_Wow, this chapter was long…_

_We wrote the dialogue together before writing up our chapters separately – I wrote only Vincent's dialogue, Ryan took everyone else._

_People who know me well will know I have self-confidence issues – if I did well, say so! If I did badly, tips for improving! Either way, please, please comment. I love comments_


	2. Chapter 2

_Seeing as chapter 1's intro was long enough, I (May) decided to plonk this here. This is the list, spoilers for later chapters removed, of characters we each control at the time of writing up this part. Ryan has more than double me, I know – see aforementioned lack of confidence._

_I might give you a hint if you comment -- and _beg!

_May – Vincent, [spoiler], Tifa (Chapters 22+), _

_Ryan – Yuffie, Tifa (Chapters 1-21), Cloud, [spoiler], [spoiler], Cid, Nanaki, Marlene, Barret, Reno, Rude, Tseng, Elena,_

_Chapter Two: Ryan Halloway_

Cloud frowned at his phone, seeing it was an unrecognized number calling. He didn't remember giving his number to anyone who wasn't in his contacts list. He decided to answer, so he could know who had his number at least.

"Hello?"

"Come to the new power plant at Edge Central."

"Vincent." Cloud recognized the voice. He must have forgotten to add him to his contacts. "Why?"

"Someone shot Yuffie. Pierced a lung. She'll be all right, but...they found something in her blood, similar to S cells."

Cloud frowned at that. "In Yuffie? That's not possible."

"I know."

Yuffie's voice could suddenly be heard, shouting in the background, "IF THIS IS ABOUT ME, I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IT!"

Cloud winced slightly, thankful she was far away from the phone, but otherwise ignored her.

"If she had S cells, she'd have been under Sephiroth's control. She wasn't."

"It wasn't the S cells that did that to Sephiroth," Vincent said. "He couldn't handle knowing it."

Cloud knew this was true, but something still didn't feel right. "It was the S cells that allowed him to control all the other people they put his cells into. If they're in Yuffie, she should have been under his control too."

"The doctor said similar to S cells."

Cloud started walking towards Fenrir. If S cells were involved anywhere, it had to be serious.

"I'm on my way over," he said. "Tell Yuffie to stop shouting if she has an injured lung."

Vincent put the phone away, and walked back into the medical area. Tifa looked up at him as he entered.

"There you are," she said. "Vincent, I have to go. I promised to look after Marlene tonight, and I still have more deliveries to make. Look after Yuffie, okay?"

Vincent remained silent, but nodded.

"Thank you," Tifa said, before leaving the room.

"What took you so long out there?" Yuffie whined.

"I had to phone."

"Oh?" Yuffie said, suddenly sounded interested. "Who were you talkin' to? Did you order me chocolates or something?"

"No."

"Oh... You still could, if you wanted to."

"I could," Vincent said, blankly.

"So, what did the doc want?"

"You lost a lot of blood," Vincent said.

"I haven't lost it," Yuffie said, looking down at herself and pouting. "It's all over me. I'm all cold, and sticky."

There was, indeed, a substantial amount of blood on her clothes and skin. However, Vincent simply gave a small grunt in reply.

"Mostly cold..." Yuffie said, looking pointedly at Vincent.

Vincent said nothing this time, and a few moments of silence passed.

"I'd get a blanket or something, but I can't move..." Yuffie said.

Silently, Vincent got up, and put a blanket over her.

Yuffie smiled at him, and snuggled into the blanket. "Awww, thanks. You didn't have to..."

Vincent sat down again, silently, only glancing at Cloud as he walked in.

"Cloud!" Yuffie said, on seeing him. "You're the one Vince called! Do you have a package for me?" Yuffie had always been sure to have any packages sent by Strife Delivery. It was one of the only ways she ever got to see Cloud anymore.

"No," Cloud said.

"I didn't say anything," Vincent said.

"She needs to know."

Yuffie frowned in confusion. What on the planet were they talking about? She guessed it had to be her. The person Cloud was saying needed to know would be Tifa. He was always thinking of her.

"Who, Tifa? She was here already, it's okay!"

Vincent let out a small sigh. "They found mako in your blood."

"Huh?" Yuffie asked. Neither Cloud or Vincent replied, so Yuffie continued. "Probably from materia use."

Vincent shook his head.

"Well it has to be, I can't be SOLDIER or anything, that's just silly!" Yuffie said, almost laughing. Not only was there no way Mako could have gotten into her system, it would have left signs as well. "Besides, look at the eyes!"

Cloud leaned down to have a closer look at her eyes, allowing Yuffie a better look at his. They were the sky blue eyes of SOLDIER all right. They had that special brightness to them, at almost made it look as if they were glowing. Yuffie was almost amazed they didn't, but she had seen Cloud in the dark, and no light had come from his eyes.

Cloud frowned, and grabbed a magnifying glass, the kind used for looking into one's ear, and started examining her eyes.

"Fake," he said.

"Fake?" Vincent asked.

"It's like a coloured contact lens," Cloud said. "But it looks like it's been attached directly to the iris."  
"But..." Yuffie said, at a loss.

"They also found something similar to S cells," Vincent said.

"This isn't funny anymore!" Yuffie was sure it had to be a joke. It simply wasn't possible she had S cells. But the silence that followed her outburst felt almost like being shot again.

"Vince..." Yuffie said, her voice breaking. "Why would you say something like that? I can't possible have S cells. I'm Wutai!"

"I don't know how," Vincent said.

"They're _wrong!_" Yuffie said. After all the Wutai had suffered at the hands of Shinra, there was no way she, the princess of Wutai, could have anything to do with them. "They tested someone else's blood! They made a mistake!"

"Yuffie..." Vincent said. It was clear there was no actual end to that sentence.

"It doesn't mean anything, Yuffie," Cloud said.

"I'm Wutai! We don't do Shinra, and we don't do SOLDIER!"

The terrible silence fell again, and Yuffie felt all the defiance seep out of her, leaving only a desperate helplessness.

"I can't be...I would know..."

"Unless someone didn't want you to know," said Vincent.

Yuffie could feel her eyes tear up, and she sniffed. She couldn't let herself cry. Not in front of Vincent, not for real anyway.

"But...but..." There had to be a way it was false. "They'd have had to experiment on me. That never happened."

"Unless it happened before you remember," Vincent said.

"My father would never have let that happen," Yuffie said, but she wasn't even convincing herself. Vincent fell silent again, and she felt herself instinctively curl up, as best she could without hurting herself anyway.

She sniffed again, and closed her eyes. She realized, almost as soon as she had, that it was a mistake. Tears started to flow down her face, and she couldn't stop them.

"Yuffie..." Vincent's voice again. It was still clear he didn't know how to end that sentence, but Yuffie didn't care. Any convictions she had felt about not crying were gone now.

She grabbed Vincent's cape and pulled him closer to her, burying her face in the warmth of his shoulder, crying openly now.

Cloud looked on, not sure of what to do, although the discomfort Vincent was feeling was obvious. He searched around in a first aid kit and pulled out a sedative. He held it where Vincent could see it, and raised his eyebrows, questioningly.

Vincent nodded, and Cloud gently injected her with the drug.

"Huh...?" Yuffie said, blearily, the drug taking almost instant effect. Her fingers slowly released Vincent, and she relaxed downwards, onto her bed, asleep. Vincent relaxed noticeably as Yuffie let go of him.

Cloud looked down at Yuffie. He had seen her whine a thousand times before, but he'd never seen her cry. Her usual moans were obviously fake anyway. But now her face, even in sleep, had an expression of genuine heartbreak, and it was covered in tears.

"I'm going to find out what happened to Yuffie," he said.

Vincent nodded. "I'll stay with her."

"You're a brave man, Vincent," Cloud said, standing up. "Tell me if anything else happens to her."

Vincent nodded once more, and Cloud left, determined to find out who had done this to Yuffie.


	3. Chapter 3

_Sorry! This chapters should have been up three days ago, but computer problems prevented me - rapidly approaching exams made it as late as that. This chapter was really hard to write, and I'm fully aware my writing's bland at best in the middle. I promise my next will be better… and faster._

_Chapter Three: May Wood_

Vincent woke up with a start. The first thing he became aware of was that he had fallen asleep in the first place; after twenty-eight years asleep he barely slept at all any more. Perhaps he had fallen asleep through sheer boredom. The second thing he became aware of was the sound of Yuffie shrieking, and he grimaced before opening his eyes reluctantly.

Tifa was sitting on the side of Yuffie's bed, trying desperately to comfort the other girl, who was screaming and crying into her shoulder loud enough to give Vincent an instant headache. "It's ok… it's all right…" she was saying in a soothing voice, but to absolutely no effect. She took a breath and tried again. "You're still you… it doesn't mean anything, you're still the same person you always were."

Hearing no change in Yuffie's bawling, Vincent reluctantly sat up straighter, meeting Tifa's eyes even as she waved him closer, closer to Yuffie. With a small sigh, he obeyed, moving to stand by Tifa.

Yuffie looked up at him, tears of pure despair still streaking down her face, and to his puzzlement began sobbing even harder than before. He was no fool, and her crush on him had hardly escaped his notice; but if she liked him, why would he instil such fresh despair? "Don't look at me!" Yuffie wailed after the briefest of pauses.

"Why not?" Vincent replied before he could think better of it.

Sniffling, Yuffie mumbled, "I don't want you to see…" but her next words degraded into broken-hearted sobs.

Silently and so Yuffie could not see, Tifa pointed at the single black wing that was starting to sprout from the other girl's shoulder. Seeing Vincent's silent nod and the look of realisation on her face, she tried a new tactic in the hope of cheering up Yuffie. "It's all right… you're still Yuffie. Nothing's changed. You've always been this way."

Vincent and Tifa winced as one when Yuffie screamed into Tifa's shoulder, and both hurriedly swallowed a selfish feeling of relief when the sobs degraded into a sudden coughing for as Yuffie's injured lung protested. Tifa was the first to speak, of course. "I think you need to calm down. I'm sorry, you haven't healed yet…"

"Yuffie…" Vincent started, thinking to offer some comfort, but he could find no words that were not clichéd or meaningless compared to what had just happened. It seemed to have some effect, though, as she released Tifa with a despairing sigh, flopping back onto the bed and staring at the ceiling with a look of despair.

"I know it's a shock, Yuffie, but…" Even Tifa knew she was having no effect this time.

Yuffie sniffed and looked at Vincent - was she slightly embarrassed to be crying in front of him? "Where did Cloud go?" she asked eventually, in a strangely muted voice, considering her usual hyperactive mood.

Finally, a sentence involving rational thought. She must be improving, he thought. "He went to find out what happened," he told her after a pause, hoping this would not set her off again.

"Call him."

Vincent blinked in surprised at her tone as she effectively ordered him to phone Cloud. He nodded, ignoring another large sign forbidding him to use his phone and proceeded to do just that.

Eyes widening in what looked like sudden panic, Yuffie almost shouted, "Don't tell him about the… thing! Just ask him what he knows."

"Cloud."

Nodding slightly to Yuffie, Vincent asked carefully, "Have you found anything?" He was fairly certain that Cloud would guess something was up; after all, they both knew he would never call simply to ask that.

Cloud sounded confused as he replied. "Yes. Is that all you phoned for?"

"No," Vincent replied simply, hoping Cloud would guess without further prompting. His headache was bad enough as it is, without adding to it by having Yuffie shouting at him.

There was a noise of comprehension from the phone as Cloud realised why Vincent had called. "Yuffie made you call, didn't she?" In the background, Vincent could hear Marlene demanding something from Cloud, and the quieter sound of another male shushing her. Cloud ignored both of them and continued speaking in the same calm tone as before. "Has she realised she has a wing yet?"

"Yes," Vincent replied simply, earning himself a suspicious glare from Yuffie as she clearly wondered what Cloud was saying. His side of the conversation was deliberately vague in a probably futile attempt at preventing her panicking.

"I found out what happened to her."

Vincent took a breath and glanced at Yuffie before replying. "What happened?" As expected, he saw her whole face tighten in fear as she wondered what Cloud's reply would be.

There was the sound of shuffling papers before Cloud replied. "According to Hojo's journals, she's a secondary test subject. I think it's her, anyway. It has to be, there's no one else it could be." A pause, and when Vincent failed to reply, he continued in the same thoughtful tone. "It's the same test that made Sephiroth. It looks like her mother made a deal with Hojo."

"A test?" Vincent replied, then immediately regretted it as Yuffie piped up.

"What test?" Yuffie half-shrieked, clearly panicking. "What happened?" Her voice broke slightly and she fought not to cry again.

After a pause, once Yuffie had finished, Cloud continued. "Her mother agreed to let Yuffie be a second test subject," he told Vincent, his tone clearly displaying how abhorrent he found this, "in exchange for Shinra letting the Wutai use materia again."

Vincent nodded slightly. "Oh…" he murmured; if Yuffie's obsession with materia was any standard to judge by, the actions of her mother were explainable - not justifiable, nothing could make those actions acceptable.

"What was that 'oh'?" Yuffie demanded, despite Tifa's best efforts to keep her quiet. "That sounded like a bad 'oh'!"

"Notice which one of them held up their end of the deal." Was Cloud amused or angry? Perhaps both. "I'm here with Godo, and he's pretty angry. He had no idea." Definitely angry. "The experiment killed the mother, and because she didn't tell anyone, Hojo saw no need to hold up his end of the bargain."

Vincent nodded to himself, ignoring Yuffie trying to catch his gaze. He thought of her earlier proclamation that her father Godo would never have let that happen; he hadn't known… "That makes sense," he said quietly, wishing Hojo had never got his hands on Yuffie. The girl deserved better than that.

The change in Cloud's tone implied he had said all he had found out. "I don't know why she was never collected. Either Hojo didn't care, or he had something else planned." The determination in the man's voice was clear. "I'll let you know if I find out more." He hesitated, then in a tone showing his understanding of the impossibility of this task, he added, "Try to keep Yuffie from freaking out. This explains a lot though, if I'm honest."

"Yes," Vincent agreed, thinking of all the times she had fallen or knocked her head, and survived to complain about it. Her loud interruption of his fight with Nero was merely one example; on many occasions she had fallen far further than the thirty feet of that occasion, and yet remained completely unharmed.

Cloud cleared his throat slightly. "I'd better go," he decided. "Hojo was never much for handwriting, this could take a while." Not bothering with a goodbye, he hung up.

Once he put his phone away, Yuffie spoke again, in a quiet, shaky voice. "Vincent…?"

Vincent took a breath and let it out again before replying. He knew Yuffie would panic; the only question was to what extent. In a quiet voice, he explained what Cloud had told him, watching the blood drain out of the young woman's face as he spoke.

"No…" Yuffie moaned. "My mother wouldn't have…"

Tifa watched as Vincent's face hardened. "She did," he replied in a voice devoid of emotion. Why had he turned so heartless all of a sudden? Perhaps he pitied her and, not knowing what to do with that emotion, blocked it out along with every other. Or perhaps he simply did not care and was getting tired of her tears.

Yuffie took a shaky breath. "But dad…"

"Had no idea," Vincent interrupted, his voice every bit as cold as before.

Yuffie pulled her blanket up as far as she could, as if hiding under it. "I'm part of Jenova…" she whispered, her voice shaking with the tears she still felt but was no longer shedding.

Vincent sighed slightly, but before Tifa could berate him for it, he spoke, in the same blank tone as before. "It doesn't make you a monster." Had there been a flicker of some emotion in his voice? After all, if anyone knew about monsters it was he, and it was no secret that he felt constantly uneasy about the Chaos within him.

"Yes it does," Yuffie sniffed miserably.

Vincent hesitated before replying. "It doesn't make you bad," he said quietly, his emotionless appearance belying the emotional turmoil rolling through his mind, not least because of what Hojo had done to Yuffie - hadn't he done enough to destroy people's lives already? How much more had he done, how many more had suffered?

Tifa spoke up in another attempt at comforting Yuffie. "You're still human, Yuffie." She hesitated. "Mostly."

"But… I'm still a monster," Yuffie whispered.

"So?" Tifa retorted, her voice strong with the belief that this made no difference.

"But…"

Time for a different tactic, perhaps. "It's really no different from finding out you had a different hair colour than you thought," Tifa told her hopefully.

Sniffing, Yuffie injected a note of fake cheer into her voice. "My eyes have a different colour!" she chirped, but the shaking in her voice belied the tone.

"That's not the point," Tifa scolded her with a smile. At least she was trying to be cheerful. "It doesn't matter what you are, it matters who you are. Yuffie Kisaragi, white rose and ninja warrior of Wutai."

Yuffie sniffed again, and smiled at hearing someone else speak the words she so often used to describe herself. "When can I leave?" she asked quietly after a pause.

"Soon," Tifa reassured her. "You won't need the machines any more, soon." She glanced at Vincent to be sure he would not tell Yuffie either that that was mostly thanks to the Mako in her body. That would hardly help right now.

Nodding, Yuffie turned her head to look at the still-silent Vincent. "V-Vincent…?" she started, her heart thumping as she wondered just what she was doing.

"Yes?"

Well… at least he had replied at all, she thought. Even if his tone was as bland as ever, it was better than silence! "Could you stay with me?" she whispered, desperately hoping he would say yes.

After a few seconds which made her spirit deflate almost totally, and against all sense, Vincent nodded his agreement. He wanted to stay with her!

She took a shaky breath, and when she spoke it was in a level tone. "Thank you," she whispered. When she got no reply other than a slight nod, she tried moving a little. Only the slightest twinge of pain greeted her, so she reached up properly and latched her arms around Vincent. She either ignored or did not notice his obvious awkwardness as she did so. "Hey… I can move now!" she bubbled happily.

It was a few seconds before Tifa decided to rescue him, gently pushing Yuffie away from him and back onto the bed. "You still shouldn't," she told her firmly. "You need to keep still." The flash of gratitude in Vincent's eyes did not go unnoticed.

Sighing, Yuffie picked up a mirror from the table, staring closely at her reflection. She looked up in time to see Vincent watching the steadily growing wing, and focussed on her own eyes again. Should she get the fake lenses removed, or…? Wait, what was that? Were they… lighter, bluer? "They're changing…" she whispered with a frown. "They used to be dark brown… dark, dark. They look hazel now." She fixed her eyes on Vincent's. "Have they changed?"

It took Vincent barely a second to nod.

Yuffie's stomach did a quick somersault. "How can you tell?" she whispered, barely audible. He had been looking at her eyes… Vincent, of all people!

Vincent fidgeted. "I have a good memory," he said eventually, not convincing anyone.

"You've been looking at my eyes?" Yuffie challenged brightly as her stomach did a few more turns. A cheeky note entered her voice as she demanded, "What else have you been looking at?"


	4. Chapter 4

_Apologies - the delay in uploading is once again May's fault._

_Chapter Four: Ryan Halloway_

"Yuffie," Tifa said, trying not to smile at Vincent's discomfort. "Marlene asked if she could come visit you sometime here, would that be okay?"

"Of course!" Yuffie said.

"Vincent and I are going out for some food, okay?" Tifa said, wanting to talk to Vincent alone. "We'll bring you back something." Tifa handed Yuffie her phone so she could keep herself amused. "Call whoever you like, _except_ Cloud. Just chat with someone, okay?"

Yuffie nodded in reply, taking the phone.

"Cloud's busy," Vincent added, simply.

"You'll be okay?" Tifa said.

Yuffie nodded. "Go on! If you go, you can give me food. I'm hungry."

Tifa smiled at that, glad to see Yuffie was starting to cope better, and went outside, followed by Vincent.

"So, you've been looking at her eyes?" Tifa was a little surprised at this herself. It was hard to tell if Vincent cared about anything or anyone sometimes. To think he might care about Yuffie that way...

Vincent just grunted slightly. It was hard to tell, but Tifa was pretty sure it was meant to be a yes.

"God knows she's been lookin' at yours..."

"I know," Vincent said.

"I mean...everyone kinda does at first," Tifa said. "But she never really stopped." Unlike Vincent, Yuffie was hardly unreadable. Whenever the two were in the same room, it was obvious she liked him.

"I know," Vincent said again.

Tifa decided to venture a wild guess, hoping maybe Vincent had more of a heart than she had thought.

"So, do you avoid her because she's looking at your eyes, or because you keep looking at hers?"

Vincent ignored her again. Tifa looked at his face, hoping for some sign of embarrassment, or any other clue to give her the answer, but it was as barren as always.

"You might be good for her," Tifa said.

Vincent's stony silence was the only response. Personally, Tifa thought Yuffie might be better for Vincent than he would be for Yuffie. She might be able to help him get back some of the humanity that Tifa sometimes worried he'd lost.

"She is a little young though," Tifa said.

"And I am old."

"Unless you subtract all that time you spent sleeping," Tifa said. "That hardly counts."

Vincent grunted again, and Tifa decided to give up. It was hopeless trying to push Vincent to anything. Better just to change the subject.

"She's doing better than I thought she would."

Vincent nodded slightly.

"She'll be able to hide that wing, won't she?" Tifa said, knowing Yuffie would take poorly to having her looks scarred by that wing forever. "I heard Sephiroth could retract his, or something."

"I think so," Vincent said with a nod again. It was about as much as she could hope to get out of him.

"Well, that should make her feel better," Tifa said, stepping into the power plant's cafeteria.

It was a fairly standard cafeteria, but larger, with a high stack of lunch trays and plastic dishes. However the amount of food was more than substantial. The desserts had two tables all to themselves, though this was nothing compared to the amount of space dedicated to regular foods. Looking at the other end of the room, Tifa saw there was a doorway to a separate eating area, if the cafeteria ran out of room. She figured a plant like this must have to serve a lot of employees. There was a tall, black haired kitchen worker who kept replacing any item of food that ran out. He looked painfully familiar to Tifa.

"I think we've forgotten something important," Tifa said.

"What?"

"One normal bullet should have been nothing to someone who's been part of the SOLDIER project," she said, looking at the kitchen worker. He resembled Zack just enough to fool her for a second. She remembered Zack had been shot at by the Shinra army, including once in the head, from point blank range, and still had time to give his last words to Cloud.

Vincent nodded slightly.

"This isn't just because she was guarding the plant. Whoever did this knew what she was," Tifa said. "After breakfast, I should go find out what they shot at her. Maybe it can help us figure out who did this."

"It was a Shinra gun," Vincent said. "It makes sense Shinra would be able to..." he trailed off. Vincent never was one to see the necessity of ending a sentence, but Tifa wondered if he just didn't want to say what they had done to Yuffie.

"I'm guessing most of Shinra never knew about this. Rufus never said anything."

Vincent slightly nodded, his only sign of agreement.

"I understand Shinra wanting to destroy the plant, if they want to get a choke hold on the power industry again. But this..." Even though Tifa knew Yuffie probably had enemies, it was hard for her to even imagine anyone wanting to hurt the girl.

"Destroying the evidence?" Vincent suggested.

"Or maybe they decided she's too dangerous," Tifa said. "They had to abandon their original plan for her, which leaves a powerful SOLDIER on the loose."

"She's not SOLDIER," Vincent said. "Whatever they did to her." Was that a hint of irritation in his voice?

"No," Tifa said. "You're right. But she's dangerous, we've always known that. Honestly, if you two fought, I'm not sure who would win."

"Me neither."

"If it were anyone else, I'd say you, right off the bat."

In the silence that followed, Tifa started to get more concerned about Yuffie. The poor girl had been in such a state, and only moment ago. She seemed to be doing better now, but Tifa couldn't help but wonder if it would last.

"You don't think she'll go crazy, like Sephiroth, do you?" Tifa asked. "She's very proud of being Wutai."

"She can handle it, I hope," Vincent said.

"I think she can," Tifa said. "It's hard to imagine Yuffie hating anything that much."

Vincent didn't reply, but he seemed to be turning the idea around in his mind. Tifa wondered if the idea was as funny to him as it was to her.

"I'm going to destroy the world!" Tifa said, opting not to try and imitate Yuffie's voice with it. "Ooh, a cupcake! Never mind!"

Vincent was silent again, but Tifa secretly thought he was amused.

"Speaking of which..." Tifa said, getting up. She started to load a plate up with items from the dessert table. She wasn't sure what Yuffie liked, but figured anything sweet would do. She started with a cupcake, but took a sampling of almost everything. She made sure to load a fair amount of jelly on as well, knowing it amused Yuffie.

She handed the plate to Vincent, and started working on a takeaway bag for herself.

"I have to go check on Marlene," she said. "Normally Cloud would, but...he's busy. You take that to Yuffie okay?"

Vincent sighed slightly and nodded. Tifa knew he probably wasn't thrilled at the idea of more time alone with Yuffie, but maybe, just maybe, it'd work out for the best.

"I'll be back as soon as I can!" She called over her shoulder as she left. She meant it too. Maybe too much time alone would be bad...


	5. Chapter 5

_Note from May: What? Exams? Who needs to revise for THOSE when you can write chapter five instead? Hope you guys appreciate this one!_

_Chapter Five: May Wood_

Vincent took a deep breath before opening the door in time to see Yuffie shutting Tifa's phone very quickly, guilt plastered all over her face. He stopped in the doorway, holding the tray out of sight. He rather suspected getting an answer would be impossible once she saw the food. "Who were you calling?" he asked quietly.

"Um…" There was a pause while Yuffie made up the answer. "Cid!"

That was possibly the worst lie she could have come up with, he mused. Her hatred for his friend was matched only by Cid's hatred for her. Put the two of them in a room together and within twenty minutes there would be a guaranteed shouting match. "Yuffie…" he sighed.

She deflated. "Okay, I called Cloud," she admitted. "He's not answering though." She flashed Vincent an innocent smile. "He must be really busy if he's not taking calls from Tifa's phone."

Vincent sighed again, but there was little point in saying anything. At least no harm had been done. This time. Without another word, he stepped into the room, putting the tray of food on her lap before she could say anything else.

As he had expected, she immediately perked up. "Oh!" she chirped. "Thank you!" She beamed at him, then noticed the most important item on the plate. "Jelly!" She poked it, watching it wiggle with seemingly endless fascination.

_Simple things_, thought Vincent to himself, not a trace of his inner amusement reaching his face. He sat down, watching her eat in silence, not showing his relief both that she was doing better, and that she was, for the moment, being quiet.

Watching the jelly still, Yuffie eventually spoke. "Did Tifa go?" she asked him, her mouth full.

Hoping against hope that stoic silence would keep her from bubbling too enthusiastically, he nodded slightly.

"Huh…" Yuffie paused to poke the jelly again as it stopped wobbling. "Well, she can't be gone long. She left me with her phone." She paused, then looked Vincent straight in the eyes. "How do my eyes look?"

It was too late to avoid eye contact. Feeling distinctly uncomfortable, Vincent replied quietly, "Bluer than before." He would normally just look away, but the look in her eyes made him keep looking at her, carefully hiding any and all emotion away from where she could see.

With a slight sigh, she mused, "I guess they're not really changing colour. It's just the real colour coming through…" She paused, staring at his eyes. She had looked at them before, of course, who hadn't? – but this was the first time she had really stopped to stare, to examine the deep red irises that were so attractive… "Were your eyes always that way?" she asked him, her voice unusually subdued as she stared.

This time, Vincent did break the eye contact, well aware of her disappointed pout as he did so. "Yes," he replied quietly, guessing the conversation would soon turn to the uncomfortable subject of his past.

The smile returned to Yuffie's face. "I've known people who had operations to get eyes that colour. I can tell why." There was an uncomfortable pause before she continued, eating still. "So… what do you think?"

"About what?" he asked, careful not to say anything that might make her overreact. He did not really want her crying again, but nor did he want her too happy.

Yuffie sniffed slightly, her happy mood vanishing as she thought again about what had happened. She waved a hand slightly at herself, staring at the wobbling jelly, this time with no amusement.

"You're the same person as before."

"Yes, but…" She paused before continuing. "I'm not the person you thought I was." She looked at him again, her lip trembling.

What could he say now to cheer her up? "It doesn't matter," he replied quietly, wondering why his opinion mattered to her.

Yuffie managed to smile. "That's sweet," she told him, ineffectually as he completely ignored her. "But I'm all… experimented on." Her eyes suddenly shone with tears, and her voice shook as she continued. "I'm hardly even Wutai. I'm just one big… experiment."

Vincent took a breath before speaking. "So am I," he told her, not quite looking at her. Why was he telling Yuffie, of all people, anything about his past?

She sniffed and shook her head. "Of course you're not. Your eyes are red, no mako there."

He shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "Not that sort of experiment."

"You don't look like an experiment…" Was that a note of cheer in her voice again? "I mean, your hand is kinda weird, but that's just a glove." Sudden uncertainty flashed on her face. "Isn't it?"

Looking at his metal-encased left hand, Vincent nodded. "Yes, now," he told her quietly, painfully remembering what Hojo had done to him.

"What do you mean, now?" she demanded, curiosity and worry showing in her voice in roughly equal measures.

"It was… removed."

Yuffie frowned at him. "They took your hand?" she demanded, sounding horrified. "But you need your hand!"

Vincent almost smiled at that. "It's just a glove now."

"Why would someone take your hand?" she asked in confusion.

Why did he? That was a question Vincent had never found an answer to. "I don't think he had a reason," he replied eventually, with the slightest of shrugs.

"Did he just… chop it off in a fight or something?"

He shook his head silently, coming to realise that he now had little choice but to tell Yuffie everything. As long as she asked the right questions, that is. The point still stood, though, why had he told her anything in the first place?

"Who was it? Is that all he did to you? Take your hand?"

Vincent took a slight breath and made sure his voice would not shake before replying. "It was Hojo," he told her quietly. "He… killed me first."

"What?" Yuffie burst out. "How!"

Vincent shifted in his chair, unable to suppress unwanted memories. "He shot me, in the chest."

Before he could stop her, Yuffie reached up to feel his chest gently. "Seems fine to me…"

Uncomfortable, Vincent moved back, out of reach. "He brought me back," he replied. All right, _Lucrecia_ had actually brought him back, but he was not about to mention her to Yuffie. Anyway, he blamed Hojo.

Yuffie's own experiments were forgotten as she focussed on Vincent. "How?" she demanded softly. "Why? If he killed you…" The only response was silence, so she continued. "Is that what brought you back?" she asked eventually. "Experiments?"

Not trusting himself to speak, Vincent nodded slightly, feeling almost glad that he had told her. At least she knew she was not alone in being an experiment…

She frowned in confusion. "How could he bring you back to life that way? How would anyone die if he can do that?"

"I don't understand how," Vincent lied quietly. He could not bring himself to mention Chaos, not yet, although he had a feeling that Yuffie would soon pry the information out of him.

"Oh." Did she know he was lying? "I'm glad he brought you back…" she told him, reaching out to take his gloved hand in her own. Quickly, she added, "Although I wish he hadn't shot you in the first place." Another long silence, before she perked up, chirping at him, "Well... now you have someone else who's been experimented on, you can talk to! You're not alone!"

Her words almost brought a smile to his face, but the emotion failed to show. Regardless, Yuffie smiled widely enough for both of them.

Keeping hold of his hand, mostly to prevent him escaping, Yuffie sighed. "I think it's almost time for me to go…"

"Go?" he echoed with a frown.

"Go home, silly!" she laughed. "I think they've been using some sort of heal materia in the machines. They're hardly short on the stuff." She idly wondered if they would mind if some went missing, but decided not to risk it. At least, not when she was too weak to make a quick getaway. "So!" she suddenly declared, interrupting her own thought train. "Am I staying at your place, or are you staying at mine?"

What? Vincent stared at her in silence, wondering why they had to stay together at all.

"My place it is!" Yuffie decided happily. "If you'd have wanted me to stay at your place, you would have said so. You think I'm going to break stuff there, but you didn't want to say so. So my place it is."

It was probably easier to accept this for the time being, then escape as soon as possible, he decided, and nodded.

Yuffie beamed at him. "You didn't think I was going to forget that you said you'd stay with me, did you?" Oh, that was why… why had he said that? "Especially not now! You know what it's like!"

The door opened, providing a welcome interruption for Vincent and a disappointing one for Yuffie. Tifa entered with a smile as Vincent finally extricated his hand, and picked up her phone from the bed. "Sorry for making you wait," she said, mostly to Vincent at the look of discomfort on his face.

"Tifa!" Yuffie said with a slightly forced smile. She just hoped Tifa would not stay for _too_ long, so she could get back to the subject she had been pursuing before the interruption. "Vince and I were just talking about… stuff."

"Uh-huh…" Tifa said, unconvinced. "Look, I talked to the doctor, he thinks you're well enough to go home."

That certainly distracted Yuffie from her desire for more alone time with Vincent. Beaming, she pulled the machines off her, sitting up happily. "I hate these things already!" she exclaimed, but was suddenly interrupted by a mild pain from the bullet wound. Clutching at it, she fell back onto the bed again. "Owww…" she whined.

Tifa sighed, noticing Vincent studiously ignoring Yuffie's show of very fake pain. She arranged her face into a hopefully convincing look of pity.

Pouting, Yuffie let go of the injury and sat up again. "I still feel a little weak…" she said truthfully, then smiled suddenly, throwing her arms around Vincent's neck before he could back away. "Maybe you could carry me home?" she begged, smiling hopefully.

Able to take a hint that she was unwanted, Tifa smiled, deciding to push them a little closer together. "Tell you what, Yuffie, you two go home." She picked up the gun, which was still lying in the corner where it had been thrown. "I'll start looking into who shot you," she told Yuffie, then left with a slight laugh.


	6. Chapter 6

_Note from May: Canon? What canon? I know in canon Yuffie knows what Chaos is. Here, she doesn't. Ok?_

_Chapter Six: Ryan Halloway_

Yuffie smiled up at Vincent as Tifa left, hoping maybe he'd be less shy if it were just the two of them.

"Please? I'll let you have whatever you like from the fridge!"

Vincent let out a soft sigh that Yuffie instantly recognised as the sigh of a man defeated.

"Yay! Thank you!" She reached up and put her arms around his neck, clinging onto him. "You know where I live, right? I can give you directions."

Vincent seemed to consider the question for a moment, but didn't answer it. He always seemed to clam up about the strangest things. Yuffie couldn't tell at times if he had some reason he didn't want to answer particular questions, or if he just didn't like to talk.

"Let's go," she said, looking around her as she did so. "I've spent enough time in the hospital."

She never had liked hospitals. They were always so full of the sick and the crippled, and the dying. She found it depressing. This was only a small medical facility, on site at the plant. There were several other beds, but at the moment there were no other patients. Somehow it made her feel even more depressed than a normal hospital would have. The only person crippled there was her.

Vincent snapped her mind off such things though, as he sighed again, and put his arms around her, lifting her up. She kept her grip tightly around his neck, and cuddled into him as much as possible.

Vincent started to make his way out of the plant and towards her home. She couldn't help but beam up at him, even though his face was a perfect emotionless mask. He didn't fool her though. She'd seen him in action enough times to know that there was a caring person under there. She found herself quickly determined to do whatever she had to in order to make at least part of that show.

She gave a slightly pointed sigh of content as she leaned against him. Pointed, but not entirely fake. It was rather nice, being held like this. Vincent wasn't as warm as she was expecting, but he still gave off a pleasant amount of body heat. Every now and again the wind would pick up his cape and blow a portion of it across her face. It was soft, and a bit odd to the touch, in addition to being unnaturally red. She wondered briefly what it was made of.

Before she knew it, they were starting to approach her house. Any signs of happiness she had sent him during their walk were completely ignored, as was to be expected. Still, she was happy to give them. Maybe they'd make him happy, even if it didn't show.

"I've never had anyone do something like this for me before," she said, looking up into his eyes, not particularly expecting a response. She did hope it made him feel nice, on some level.

She shifted slightly in his arms, and felt his left hand move in an odd way as she did so. It suddenly struck her that this hand was encased in a razor sharp metal glove. Both hands were supporting an equal amount of her weight, but the glove hadn't cut into her at all. In fact, in her new position, most of the cold metal was against her bare flesh. She could hardly imagine how careful he must be, all the time, not to hurt anyone.

"How come you never take off the glove?" Yuffie asked.

"I've... got used to it," Vincent said, eventually.

"But it's so sharp. There's so many things you could do with that hand that you... can't." Yuffie wasn't entirely sure that statement was actually true. The gentle way his hand felt on her made Yuffie think that he could hold water balloons in that hand without fear of a rupture.

Vincent didn't respond to her comment, so Yuffie shrugged it off. There were more practical matters at hand anyway.

"Where do you want to sleep?" She asked.

"I don't need much sleep," Vincent said, blankly.

Yuffie frowned slightly at this. "What do you do all night?"

Vincent was again silent. It was possible he just didn't want to talk about it, but Yuffie suspected he didn't want to talk about it because there was nothing to say.

"That little? ... Maybe you'd rather spend the night curled up next to a beautiful princess of Wutai?"

Somehow, Vincent's lack of reply felt even more silent than before. Maybe it was just that Yuffie could feel her heart racing in her ears, which made everything else seem quieter. She felt her face start to grow hot, and she stammered to clarify.

"It doesn't have to be like that! You could just... be there."

Yuffie closed her eyes, feeling slightly sick. She knew she'd put her foot in it. All she could hope for now was to try and help give him a way out.

"I won't be hurt if you say no..."

Vincent remained silent, but when Yuffie opened her eyes, she thought she saw the hint of an expression on his face. He looked, just slightly, troubled by something. Probably what she had said, but maybe there was some chance it wasn't her fault.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"... nothing," Vincent said.

Yuffie could see her house now. They were almost there. She got the feeling that, if she didn't act fast, he'd just keep away from her as much as possible as soon as he got her home.

"Tell me when we get inside? I promise, I won't breath a word of it to anyone else!"

"All right," Vincent said after a moment, much to Yuffie's relief.

Soon they were at her house. Vincent held her in front of the door, and Yuffie pulled a key out of her pocket, unlocking it.

"Hey," she said. "I didn't have to tell you how to get here." It was true, Vincent had gone straight her house, taking the most direct route, and not missing a turn, without a word of instruction from her.

Vincent ignored this observation, and simply carried her inside.

"You can set me down on the couch if you like," Yuffie said. "... Or you can keep holding me." She cursed herself slightly for saying that. She was going to screw it all up again if she wasn't more careful, but she didn't particularly want to be put down. Regardless, Vincent set her down on her couch.

"So... you were going to tell me about something?" Yuffie said, hopefully. She was not letting the chance at Vincent opening up a little slide by her.

Vincent took a deep breath and told her, briefly, about a woman called Lucrecia. She could tell he was holding out on the details, but his voice took on an unusual stiffness as he spoke. Yuffie knew he was struggling to hold back more emotion. For once, she didn't feel like pushing him. Yuffie just let him tell her how Lucrecia had left him to marry Professor Hojo, how she had let Hojo had performed the same experiment on Lucrecia's unborn child as he had on Yuffie. It wasn't until he started to blame himself for not stopping her that Yuffie felt able to speak.

"It wasn't your fault," she said, wrapping her arms around him. "You couldn't have done anything to stop it. You didn't own her or anything."

"I know," Vincent said, blankly.

"She made a mistake, and you lost her, I know." Yuffie said. "But it doesn't mean you can't be with anyone now."

Vincent gave a small little "Hm."

"You're not telling me everything," Yuffie said.

"... no."

"You have to tell someone," Yuffie said, almost pleading with him.

Vincent sighed. "I had the Chaos gene implanted in me."

Yuffie remembered hearing about that a few times, when they had saved the world together, but she never entirely understood it.

"What is that?" she asked.

Vincent explained briefly that it was a type of monster, created by the planet, that was now a part of him, and that he changed into when his emotions became too extreme.

"Oh... well then it's perfect!" Yuffie exclaimed brightly. She had been expecting much worse.

"Perfect?"

"Uh-huh! You've got the Chaos gene, I'm full of Jenova cells!" Yuffie said. "If you start to get all... 'rawr!' I can kick the crap out of you!"

She saw another emotion just barely touch the surface of his face. His lips twitched slightly, almost smiling for a moment. It was all she needed to see to feel encouraged.

"Besides, I've never seen you turn all 'rawr' like that. Even when I got shot!"

"I have some control over Chaos," Vincent admitted.

"Well, if you like me, which I _know_ you do, and my getting shot isn't going to make you go bad, I don't think there's anything I could do that will."

Vincent was silent again, but Yuffie was sure that he liked her the way that she liked him now. She didn't think there was any other way she could have possibly been told the Lucrecia story willingly otherwise.

"You're not afraid doing... you know... naughty things will make you turn into Chaos, are you?"

Vincent didn't answer.

"Don't be silly! That's like the opposite of angry, right? Besides, if I'm in bed with you, and you start to transform, I _will_ knock you out cold before you can blink."

Vincent remained silent.

"Aren't you worried about what might happen if you're not with me?" Yuffie asked. She knew there was an amazing amount of ego implied in that statement, but she didn't care. She just hoped she didn't sound too self involved.

"What?" Vincent said.

"You know exactly what my eyes... well what shade they used to be. You know where I live. You killed someone for hurting me. I know you want to be with me. But... if you keep telling yourself no, you'll be hurt. Eventually you'll be angry, and then... maybe something bad will happen."

Yuffie squirmed slightly at the continued silence. Maybe too much ego. Maybe she was wrong about him. But she couldn't stand the idea that she was right, and Vincent just had some mental block in the way.

"We're all a little dangerous... If you don't want to be with me, that's okay. But if you do like me... please don't run away."

Vincent nodded slightly, and Yuffie hugged him in relief, feeling that was as close as she could hope at getting Vincent to admit he did want to be with her. As she released him, she fell back onto the couch, and felt a sharp pain her back. Her wing fluttered uncomfortably as it freed itself from being crushed against the couch.

Yuffie suppressed a sigh, looking at the wing. It seemed to be full sized now, and it had certainly caught Vincent's attention.

"Guess I'm gonna have to get used to this thing sticking out of my back," she said. "Good thing my shoulder blades aren't normally covered."

"Sephiroth could retract his," Vincent said.

"Really?" Yuffie said. "I wonder how. I haven't really tried much to do with this yet. Not a lot of use is it, exactly?"

She flapped her wing, not expecting much. It was a single wing, on one side of her body. She couldn't imagine how it would be any possible use in giving her lift. She figured herself too heavy to fly anyway. Yet, to her surprise, she found herself lifting into the air slightly as she flapped it.

"Hey..." she said. "Hey, look!"

Vincent's mouth twitched, even more subtly than last time, but Yuffie caught the hint of a smile, and beamed back at him.

"I can fly! I hope this doesn't make me sick. I've been hang gliding before, I was okay with that. It really helps if you can control it. And airships are worse because everything keeps moving around, but it's all staying still at the same time, and it's... it makes me want to barf just thinking about it!"

"Don't think about it," Vincent suggested.

Yuffie let herself plop back onto the couch. "I'll have to do that more when I'm feeling better."

She snuggled up against Vincent, and tried to retract her wing. She was surprised by how easily it slid into her back, and the sensation made her shiver slightly.

"There," she said. "I'm all normal looking again."

"Hm," Vincent grunted. Yuffie wasn't sure if it was a grunt of agreement, or just acknowledgement that she had spoken.

"You're really sweet, Vince," she said. "Even if you do tend to be monosyllabic."

Vincent's mouth twitched again, and his chest moved slightly, as if he suppressed a laugh, or at least an amused sort of cough. Yuffie smiled and brushed a bit of hair out of his eyes.

Vincent didn't say anything, and he didn't tense up, but Yuffie could tell he was a little unsure about the way things were going. She hoped maybe she could put him at ease though.

She leaned in a little closer to him, hesitating. She could feel her chest tighten, and her heart was pounding in her ears again as she moved closer to him. Her lips just brushed against his before she kissed him, pushing his lips open with her own.

Vincent didn't react much to the kiss, neither pushing her away, or participating much in it. Yuffie couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed, but also a little exhilarated. If anything her heart was pumping even faster now at her daring. Her face suddenly felt extremely warm, and she smiled nervously.

"Would you believe I've never done that before?"

Suddenly, Vincent's phone rang, and Yuffie felt herself deflate as the ringing utterly killed the moment.

"Do you have to answer?" she asked. However, as Vincent pulled out the phone, she saw the name on the caller ID and changed her mind.

"It's Cloud, you have to answer!"


End file.
